LEXINGTON, Ky. — The LSU diving team will get its final tuneup before the NCAA Championships later this month when five members of the LSU squad head to Lexington, Ky., to compete at the NCAA Zone B Diving Regionals Friday and Saturday.
Thirteen women and 12 men will advance to the NCAA Championships which will be held on March 21-23 at Austin, Texas for the women and March 28-30 at Athens, Ga., on the men’s side.
“This is a really big meet for all of our divers, it is a great atmosphere and we need to do well here to make sure we are prepared for the NCAA Championships,” said LSU head diving coach Scott Reich.
The regional begins at 10 a.m. on Friday with the women’s one-meter competition and is followed by the men’s three-meter diving at 2:30 p.m. Saturday’s schedule includes the women’s three-meter and men’s one-meter in the morning session, the men’s platform at 3:30, and then the women’s platform at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Juniors Kyle Van Arsdall and Jace Pitre will dive on the men’s side for LSU, and senior Jamie Watkins, senior Holly Winters, and junior Barb Gorst will compete for the women. Watkins, a senior from Jacksonville, Fla., is a three-time All-American and is in position for her third-straight NCAA Championship appearance this season.
“It will be tough for us this weekend without Michelle Coryell and Jessica Wantz diving for us, and Barb Gorst is nursing some injuries, but if Barb is okay we have a great chance to qualify three for the NCAA’s,” said Reich.
Coryell, a 2001 All-American, is still nursing a back injury that has kept her out of competition for nearly four months. Wantz, a true freshman from Houston, Texas, has also been injured for several months.
“It is going to be a dogfight for our guys because there are not that many spots to qualify for, and there are a lot of really good divers at the meet. If we can make very few mistakes then we can make it.”